From the Principal's Desk

Term 3 Reflections so far

It has certainly been another busy few weeks since our last edition of the newsletter with many exciting and fun events happening in our school. A special thank you to our Parents and Friends crew who organised at last minute our Footy Colours Day with a special visit from Geelong Cats- Rhys Stanley, Jezza Cameron and the ever popular Bailey Smith. 

The students really enjoyed the afternoon nearly as much as the star struck staff, including our number 1 Cats supporter of all time, our much loved cleaner Leanne. 

Our students prepared some questions (some rather curly) to ask the cats players and were given the opportunity to stand up and ask them on the day. I think my favourite question was what happens if you need to go to the toilet when you're playing footy? The response, you just go off and go! 

In addition I would also like to thank the families that have so far responded to the various surveys and feedback that is often requested from schools including the recent Compass notification regarding our Parent Opinion Survey. If you are able to complete this, it is greatly appreciated with the results often forming new directions for our school and areas we need to focus on. It really is the best way to provide myself and the school leaders with  feedback on what matters most to you.

Planning for 2026

It is certainly that time of year that we begin to make solid plans for 2026 if you can believe, as we turn our attention to the future. I reflect at this time of year, that it seems to be earlier and earlier that this happens which is somewhat led by our new Prep enrolment numbers which we are currently finalising. It is really an exciting time for our school as we can confirm that we will again have 2 Prep classes next year. In addition, we will be moving from 10 to 11 classes overall as our enrolment numbers increase in a small way again. 

In addition, the recent parent survey we pushed out regarding our BYOD Technology Program where we have begun the work at school council discussing our potential shift from iPads to Chromebooks. The school is currently in talks with different companies regarding options and will present this information to council at our next meeting.

Fundraising Celebration

I am really pleased to let you all know that School Council along with our PnF committee have recently approved the purchase of a Gaga Pit with some of the locally raised funds we have generated over the last year or so. The cost of the pit was just over $5,000 and will be installed by Andrew our maintenance handy man when it arrives. A great result for our students and fundraising team alike!

You might be asking yourself what is a Gaga Pit?

A gaga pit is a large, fenced-in play area, typically octagonal or hexagonal, used for the game of gaga ball. The pit's walls serve as a boundary and a place for players to start the game by resting their hands against the wall. Inside the pit, a soft ball is used to hit other players below the knee, with the last player remaining being the winner.

We are expecting the delivery of our Gaga Pit in coming weeks and will install it at school in a suitable playing space. All students will be taught the rules of Gaga Ball and as we learn how to play, will be supervised by staff. We will also likely give different year levels different days/times to play to give everyone a fair go! Thank you to you all for  your contributions to our fundraising each year, it is great to now begin to give back to our students!

Upgrades 

Over the next school holiday period, we will be completing some minor works to our carpark with an additional disabled carparking space being built adjacent to the current one. This work should not take long and will enable the families and visitors we have who require this space to be accommodated for.

In addition, we have begun to make provisions for a new school fence to be completed at the back of the school property. This is likely to occur over the Christmas school holiday period and will help complete our school boundary and provide a better protection for our students and neighbours alike!

Book Week

Another wonderful book week parade with so many happy faces, costumes, accessories and clever ideas! 

It is always a crowd pleaser with so many different book characters coming to life. A special thank you to you all for the support and effort you went to this year! Enjoy some photos!

Moriac House Spelling Bee Spectacular

A few weeks ago we held our annual Moriac House Spelling Bee spectacular that saw all classrooms hold their heats with a final held in our multi-purpose room to find our spelling champions! I must admit, some of the words even had me stumped with some tricky offerings by Mr Spelling Bee himself Jared Smith. To see the students have a go and calmly and clearly spell out their words despite in some cases being unsure was a real testament to the courage of our students.

It is so amazing to see our students able to have a go in a whole school event that is not of the sporting variety and give them a go to showcase some talents in another way.

Well done to the following finalists and winners-

Prep

Siofra- Kidman House

Ivy- Farrar House

Ilikesa- Farrar House

Ashton- Macarthur House

Overall Champion- Siofra

Year 1

Jack- Farrar House

Dottie- Kidman House

Tex- Kidman House

Overall Champion- Tex

Year 2

Ned- Kidman House

Louisa- Macarthur House

Freya- Macarthur House

Alex- Kidman House

Overall Champion- Ned

Year 3

Ellery- Kidman House

Isla E- Farrar House

Arthur- Farrar House

Edith- Macarthur House

Overall Champion- Ellery

Year 4

Guinevere- Kidman House

Max- Kidman House

Bailey- Kidman House

Evie B- Kidman House

Overall Champion- Guinevere

Year 5

Indi- Farrar House

Stella Partridge- Farrar House

Penny- Farrar House

Josh- Kidman House

Overall Champion- Penny 

Year 6

Tom- Macarthur House

Tahlia- Macarthur House

Mia- Macarthur House

Overall Champion- Tahlia

Overall House Winner- Farrar!

Tree Planting Excursion

The Grade 4s and our Moriac Sustainability Leaders attended the annual tree planting day at lake Modewarre on Wednesday.  Students used their green thumbs to plant 550 trees and learn about conservation. This group worked quickly together, sharing tasks, planting, mulching and placing tree guards around their seedlings. Students’ enthusiasm and resilience was amazing. They were in an open field and the wind was fierce, students were continually running after their tree guards as they got swept away!

The group was greeted by smiling faces and a sausage sizzle and watermelon was provided by the team from Torquay Rotary.

Thank you to Lesley form Torquay & District Landcare Group for helping us organise the day. To the parents and staff that joined us and Rotary for lunch.

Moriac Primary School students have currently planted about 1700 trees through this program over the last 3 years.

Carparks and Kiss'n'Drop Zones

Just a reminder about our problematic situation with regards to picking up children after school and the limitations of parking around our boundaries and school.

Please do not use the delivery space/driveway near the General Store to park your car and walk over to collect your children as the store expects deliveries at many different times and it is not a parking area. The parking spaces outside the store are fine to use and the streets around our school are obviously another option.

Recently myself and our School Council President and Vice-President Katie Chealuck and Zoe Engel met with the Department of Transport and The Shire representatives to voice our frustrations and seek some support for our school. 

This is an ongoing conversation however please remember to NOT park or remain stationary on the yellow lines outside the pick up zone as this is illegal and extremely dangerous. During our visit this week, there were many cars still doing this even as we were observing on the footpath.

We understand since the new gate was put in place opposite the train line has reduced further parking options, but as I have mentioned many times, child safety is something we take very seriously here in our community and we ask that you all abide by local road rules and laws. Please drive around and wait your turn for collecting your child or alternatively park further away and walk up. 

Library Help

We have in the past utilised our current Ed Support staff to help keep the library clean and tidy, return books, stocktake, support students to borrow books but as we grow, we are finding this a little more difficult and our Library does need to some support on a weekly basis. Melinda in our front office usually keeps us in order with our library and ensures our system is up and running but as she has even found lately, leaving the front office is difficult with so many calls to answer.

We are currently putting our 'feelers' out to see if there were any parent/grandparent volunteers that might like to support our school on a regular basis with general tidying up and shelving and returning books. If you are interested or know of someone who might like to give back to our school in this space, please send an email to moriac.ps@education.vic.gov.au and in the subject title add "Library Volunteer" so that we might get into contact with you.

Bus Travellers- reminders please

Each day for those students that either use one of the buses in the morning or afternoon are asked if they will be on or off the bus at the end of the school day. We use a pretty simple system which also includes a staff member marking them in the morning as they get off the bus as well as in the afternoon as they get on the bus. This is obviously really important so that we account for all students.

Where is gets complicated is when students are not aware if they are on or off the bus in the afternoons. We normally just quickly call families to check so that our students are not anxious.

In addition, families that ring and make changes during the day means another phone call or search for that student and their siblings often to let them know of the new arrangements. 

As you would imagine, this is a lot of extra communication so that students are comfortable and know where they are meant to be at the end of the school day.

To ensure a smooth transition and to reduce phone calls to classrooms and eliminating worried and confused children, we really are asking families to stick to their morning plans before coming to school. Of course if there are unavoidable changes or circumstances beyond your control we do support you, but we do ask that where avoidable, you make your plans firmly and ensure your children are aware to make the process easier for our admin team.

Thank you with supporting this matter at our school.

Toilet reminders and rubbish in our yard

This term has been increasingly difficult to keep our yard clean. Our sustainability leaders from across all classrooms often come to me upset and wanting to help as they have noticed the rubbish in our yard is getting worse not better.

We have encouraged nude food in a previous newsletter and encouraged families to please reduced the amount of plastics in lunchboxes and in addition our sustainability leaders also go and count the nude food lunches as a well to celebrate each class.

Of late, we have noticed that this has slipped again and the rubbish has increased. As it is often a windy site, it blows around our yard and ends up in our neighbours back yards which we are really mindful of.

We have also recently had to call our plumber more than 3 times this term to come to support us with blocked toilets which is a costly exercise. When we have investigated the blockages,  it is whole sandwiches and apples that have been shoved down them and blocked them entirely. We are unsure if this is students making poor choices or if students are trying to get rid of their lunches without anyone knowing.

We are asking all families to please have a talk with your children around toilet use and not putting large items into our toilets after just having a new Septic System installed as we would hate for the system to fail and end up with another situation where porta-loos were needed to be called. We appreciate that the vast majority of students do not litter our yard and cause havoc in our toilets, however a broad message needed to be sent out so that all families can support our school.

With still a few excursions and other events coming up to round off the term as we await the busiest term of the year, Term 4!

Please note our key dates page will have all the details for what is coming up!

Have a great weekend,

Mel